Joined: 18 Oct 2004Posts: 1654Location: Within view of Elliot Bay, The Olympics and every ship in the Sound

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:21 pm Post subject: Doncaster

Have any of you ever been to Doncaster England? It looks like we may be staying a night or two there and have no clue about the area. Does anyone know how far it is from there to Nottingham?_________________"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

oops! devil's in the detail....thanks for that W!_________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Doncaster is not generally known for its outstanding beauty , although I'm sure there will be interesting things to see in the surrounding areas. If you're there for a couple of days I would be so tempted to travel the 47.7 miles to York, which is an amazing city with one of the most incredible cathedrals you will ever see in your life. It's an ancient walled city dating back to the Vikings (there's a cool museum where they've recreated a Viking town, smells and all!), gardens, castles, the Shambles (a maze of winding narrow alleys filled with antique shops, bookshops and the like). It's a stuynning city which I love and if you're going to be nearby it would be a waste not to go.

[quote="Vickie"]
Oh, and no visit to York is complete without a visit to Betty's Cafe and Tearooms. Trust me on this....

You MUST go to Betty's It's definately an experience!

Also, picking up on another thread about your UK visit, make sure you try black pudding when you're in the north of the country -- southerners have no idea about black pudding at all -- trust me, I'm a northerner

The very best are from a place called Bury in Lancashire (pronounced 'berry'). If they are from Bury, they will often be advertised as such, as they are ackowledged to be the best!

York is definately a good place to visit. You can buy a book on the snickleways and go exploring and find all these fabulous little tea rooms tucked away, or just really interesting buildings to look at.

Yorvik is great. Being in history/heritage and archeaology I found it to be very well done and I really liked the way they had preserved the original site and also left a demonstration lab set up so you can see what the work entails. But yes, the smells can be a bit overwhelming if you have a delicate sense of smell and/or stomach...

There are quite a few good tea rooms in York and the head of the Taylors of Harrogate Tea Company is nearby. One of my favourite teas. I can highly recommend their Taylor's Tearoom blend, Kwazulu, and Royal Blend, but all of them are really worth trying.....

In York they have walking tours which leave from opposite the tourist information centre and show you the town. From memory there are different tours that you can choose from. There is also ghost tours, but I can't say much about them as I didn't have the time to go on one.

A pub in the middle of one of the main town squares has a Roman Bath underneath it. Think the pub was called something like "the Roman Bath" - it was a name which was really obvious. You sit in there having a pub meal and looking down into the baths. Really interesting.

Nottingham is also interesting and you can still walk in Sherwood Forest - although it is a much reduced version to when Robin and his gang hid out there. Last time I was there the major oak (the oak tree that Robin Hood and his men apparently lived in/under/around) was still alive, although propped up to help the trunk support the weight of the many heavy branches. Very picturesque when we went as there were no leaves on the trees and you had a really sculptural image to photograph.

There was also a really nice market in the centre of Nottingham which I had a lot of fun browsing in. Can't remember exactly where now though as it is a few years ago. Sorry._________________If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

Joined: 18 Oct 2004Posts: 1654Location: Within view of Elliot Bay, The Olympics and every ship in the Sound

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:13 pm Post subject:

Thanks Debbie! It is funny to read about Robin Hood etc., as for most of my life I thought he was fiction. I would imagine that was a very interesting thing to see. Oh you're getting me again with your Aussie speech, what in the world is a snickleway? I'm thinking maybe it means little tucked away places?_________________"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."